Options Trading News

HCA Holdings is off its recent all-time highs, but one large trade is betting that the health-care services company will resume rallying.

A block of 6,000 March 37.50 calls was bought for $1.80 this morning, according to optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker system. This is clearly a new position, as the strike's open interest was just 83 contracts before today's trading began.

The long calls, which lock in the price where traders can buy the stock, are looking for HCA to gain more than 6 percent by mid-March. These options could be sold earlier for a profit if their premiums rise with any rally before then, but they will expire worthless if the stock doesn't move. (See our Education section)

HCA is down 0.9 percent to $37.04 after reaching a lifetime intraday high of $38.07 on Friday. The stock has shot up this month since bouncing from support at $30 at the end of December, but it has hit resistance at $38 in the last week.

Today's call buying made up almost all of HCA's total option volume of 6,401 so far, already almost 5 times its daily average of 1,298 contracts in the last month. Only 334 puts have traded, a reflection of the session's bullish sentiment.